The Power of Words: There Never was a Palestine, sic

book review

A couple of years ago, when I hear Sha'i Ben-Tekoa speak at a seminar for university students organized by David Bedein, he asked the audience/participants if they had studied a course called "The History of Palestine." Of course nobody raised their hand, because as he explained, there is no history, because there has never been such a country or people.

You may have noticed that I never refer to the Arabs here, terrorists or not, as "Palestinians," sic or the Land I live in as Palestine, sic. And yes, the "sics" and the italics and the quotation marks usually accompany the word/s when I do use them.

It really bothers me, professionally as writer and pundit, when people do use the word.   And when those who use the word are otherwise excellent writers and thinkers on the "Right," like Evelyn Gordon, I really get upset.

Are Palestinian Stabbings Ending? - by Evelyn Gordon

She should know better than that.

By calling those evil psychopathic Arab terrorists by the name/adjective "Palestinian," sic she is perpetuating the dangerous myth/lie that there is a people, place and history called "Palestine," sic.

There is no excuse for this at all!

We Jews are not in a "conflict" over a Land we and the Arab terrorists both "own" or have ties to. We are struggling against squatters and nomads who have no national history here. The only nation native to the Land with a history of rulers is the Jewish People. All other rulers were invaders.

Palestinian History 101, Curriculum and Essay Question

This is no joke. This poster here is probably the most valuable thing ever produced by Dry Bones.

And to give Sha'i Ben Tekoa, author of Phantom Nation: Inventing the "Palestinians" as the Obstacle to Peace, deserved credit, he opened his session I attended a few months ago by asking the university students in attendance how many had taken a course in "Palestinian History." Of course, no hands went up.

Here's the basic curriculum for the Palestinian History Course, which is probably the easiest course offered, if offered any place:

• date established
• early leaders, king, emperor, president, prime minister...
• capital city/cities
• major cities
• borders, old maps
• language
• religion
• currency
• summarize its rise and fall
• Please answer: Why wasn't there a rebellion against the Hashemite invaders/occupiers in 1948-1967?

And now for the bonus essay question:

What is the impetus to the rise of "Palestine" as cause célèbre since 1967?

How Can Smart People be So Dumb?

There's a terrible downside to democracy which can easily be defined as "the rule of idiots." There are no qualifying tests to determine who knows enough to vote, whether it's for political party in Israel, regional representative, president or dogcatcher.

Especially here in Israel, many people can't understand how Yair Lapid's party got so many votes, which means Knesset seats, when he campaigned that he was only putting candidates who had no political experience on his list. How effective can they be after getting into power, when there aren't any experienced people on their team to show them the ropes? 

And of course Israelis couldn't understand how the inexperienced Barack Hussein Obama was so overwhelmingly elected President of the United States. I explain to them that according to interviews with "ordinary Americans" I read/heard the most important campaign issue was "same sex marriage." That explains what Americans want from their president. During the American Presidential campaigns I heard/read too many interviews with ordinary people that showed total ignorance of the world and even the USA.

Besides that there is the ad nauseum repetition of the myth/lie that Israel conquered/took over/occupies the former State of Palestine. U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama is one of those who firmly believes it to be true. (As an antidote to this I recommend getting and reading Sha'i Ben-Tekoa's  Phantom Nation: Inventing the "Palestinians" as the Obstacle to Peace.)

At least Obama recognizes the dangers to world peace of ISIS, though present Harvard students and professors, no doubt, haven't  caught up with him. I was horrified, though not all that surprised to read and watch these Harvard interviews on Western Journalism. The interviewees made it clear that in Harvard they have been learning of how dangerous America is.


This clip reminds me too much of the frightening interviews I had seen during the presidential campaigns.

Dry Bones, my favorite political cartoonist has it pictured perfectly, combining the Jewish Holiday of Succot with what's happening in the world.

Dry Bones

Unbelievably Difficult Challenge for Pro-Israel Students on Campuses

Yesterday, I met, listened to, spoke to and observed a few dozen young campus activists who were trying to learn and absorb tools to enable them to not only cope with the terrible malignant anti-Israel atmosphere in university campuses around the world, but to try to find the magic potion to change the minds of the enemy Arab activists they study with. Yes, that's a very difficult, almost insurmountable challenge even for the most knowledgeable expert in history, psychology, propaganda and public relations.

I attended the Israel Advocacy Seminar run by David Bedein, with the assistance of Gail Winston and the "Winston Israel News" in memory of her late husband Manny.

The seminar was organized to help the students mostly on foreign campuses throughout the world, although it was attended by people of all ages. Today we are all in a position to advocate for Israel. That is the beauty of social media.  Even a simple email gives one a very powerful tool. I spoke to the group about blogging, telling them that with a blog they own and run their own internet newspaper or magazine. It can be done without expending any money. You don't even need a computer. A tablet or smartphone will do the trick.


Considering that I'm old enough to be the grandmother of the students, I was very curious about the world they live in. They were pretty quiet when given the opportunity to question Noam Bedein of the Sederot Media Center,

Nobody asked Bassam Eid of Activists for Human Rights in the Palestinian Authority the question that ran through my mind about the legitimacy of the term "Palestinian" after hearing what he had to say. Bli neder, not an oath, I'll blog about that in another post.

The speaker who really woke them up was the factual and blunt Sha'i Ben Tekoa, author of the invaluable book Phantom Nation: Inventing the "Palestinians" as the Obstacle to Peace. His invaluable information was received by many as if it was a diagnosis of cancer. Today's young students were there to get an easy to swallow pill to counteract the anti-Israel atmosphere, professors and activists on campus, and Sha'i informed them that there was no easy cure. No simple pill, slogan or formula. They begged him. They argued with him.

I just wanted to cry, to hug them. 
Kids, the world hates us. You're not going to change them. All we can do for you is to try to make you stronger and clarify the facts.

There were also older participants who couldn't or wouldn't accept the simple fact that it's useless and dangerous to negotiate with the Arabs, since their word can't be trusted. I agree with Sha'i Ben Tekoa that this is a fact and not racism.

Sha'i gave the history, well-documented, about the myth, lie, fallacy of Arab Palestine. I strongly suggest reading his book or getting him as a speaker in English or Hebrew. Certainly check out his site. And listen to him here, which is the basic talk he gave to us.


I didn't stay until the end of the program, my loss for sure.